The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical connectors that have terminal position assurance devices or members to ensure that electrical terminals are properly loaded and secured within connector housings.
Electrical connectors typically include electrical terminals that are held within an insulative housing. The electrical terminals have to be properly positioned or seated within the housing in order to successfully mate to a corresponding electrical contact of a mating connector. If one or more of the terminals are not properly positioned, the connector may not operate as intended when mated to the mating connector. It also may be difficult to determine which of the terminals is at fault due to the number of terminals in the housing and poor accessibility of the terminals within the housing.
Another concern with electrical connectors is retention of the terminals. For example, some terminals are retained within a cavity of the housing via small retention features, such as latches, that extend between the terminal and the housing within the cavity. However, the retention features may not be sufficiently robust to withstand pulling forces exerted on cables attached to the terminals, causing the retention features to fail and allowing the terminals to be pulled out of position.
For these reasons, some electrical connectors include terminal position assurance (TPA) devices that are configured to ensure that the terminals are properly loaded within the housing and may also support retention of the terminals within the housing. However, known TPA devices have several disadvantages. For example, some TPA devices are loaded axially in-line with the terminals, extending into the cavities through either the mating end or the cable end. But, these end-loading TPA devices may not be sufficiently robust to withstand the axial pushing and/or pulling forces exerted on the terminals. Another type of TPA device is side-actuating such that the TPA device moves perpendicular to an axis of the terminals into the cavities to provide hard stop surfaces that block axial movement of the terminals. The side-actuating TPA devices may be more robust than the in-line TPA devices, but the side actuating TPA devices may not be usable due to interference with other features of the connectors, such as mounting flanges, seals, mating latches or other fasteners, or the like. For example, if the housing is surrounded by a gasket or another compressible seal, then the side-actuating movement of the TPA device may interfere with the gasket.
A need remains for an electrical connector having a TPA device that ensures the terminals are properly positioned in the housing, provides robust retention support to the terminals, and also does not interfere with other features of the connector.